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UER Forum > UE Main > Interested in the Paris Catacombes (Viewed 3519 times)
hypnopunk 


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Interested in the Paris Catacombes
< on 1/10/2015 5:46 AM >
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Hey Y'all,

New Member here, thinking of how to contribute to the forum here so I can meet some explorers. My girlfriend lived in Paris for a year, during which she fell in with the Cataphile scene, the hard-to-penetrate and hostile-to-outsiders community of Parisian Catacombes explorers. So, if anyone has some questions for her, I'll write up her answers for y'all, barring of course POEs and other info she deems sensitive.

Maybe there are Cataphiles here, and y'all aren't interested, and/or already know everything about the Catacombes, in which case chalk this up to me being a n00b and disregard this post.





Aran 


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Huh. I guess covid made me a trendsetter.

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Re: Interested in the Paris Catacombes
< Reply # 1 on 1/11/2015 6:36 AM >
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Well, we all know about the bones- those are well documented. But what about the other stuff I've heard about?

According to various rumors and sources, there is a lot more than bones down there. For example, the Catacombs are incredibly old. I know they were created when early Paris builders dug out the ground underneath the city for stone- are there still tools and such down there, untouched for centuries?

I've also heard that the Catacombs connect almost every underground structure in Paris, from the metro and sewer systems to the crypts and wine cellars of old mansions, to some hospitals and military bunkers.

Lastly, I've heard that they have been and still are used for more secretive stuff, from underground shanty towns to massive raves to even WWII era French Resistance operations.

The sheer amount of undiscovered history down there is incredibly tantalizing, and I'm interested in what you're girlfriend has found down there. If what I've heard is true, it's bound to be interesting.




"Sorry, I didn't know I'm not supposed to be here," he said, knowing full well he wasn't supposed to be there.

hypnopunk 


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Re: Interested in the Paris Catacombes
< Reply # 2 on 1/18/2015 5:48 AM >
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Hey it's hypnopunk's girlfriend. I wasn't very happy that he said I would answer questions because it's a sacred place for the parisien cataphils and it was even hard for me to get invited to there gatherings and excursions. I had to invite myself, persist and try to charm rather stuck up, exclusive parisiens. It was a fluke I even met them at all. Anyway... I do not remember if I happen to see other artifacts other than bones. It has been 5 years since I was there. I do remember seeing chandeliers and yes maybe some tools.
There are 350 kilometers of catacombes that extend all the way out to the boonies of Paris, far from the city centre and the grass grows. I once saw a cave entrance to the outskirts of the catacombes that had been converted into a hobo house, the hobo wasn't there but she/he seemed to have quite the collective of trinkets. There are raves and festivities down there but no one leaves without cleaning up after themselves. Everyone is really respectful of the place and if there not they are not welcome back. Some of the tunnels are tall enough for you to stand normally, others are so small you have to crawl on your stomach. Sometimes you have to step on rocks or you will fall into chest-deep murky water. The humidity is so high that your clothes will never dry until you get out.




Harvestman 


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Re: Interested in the Paris Catacombes
< Reply # 3 on 1/18/2015 6:49 AM >
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Posted by hypnopunk
hard-to-penetrate


It was actually rather easy for one particular guy.




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phrenzee 


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Re: Interested in the Paris Catacombes
< Reply # 4 on 1/18/2015 12:49 PM >
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Posted by Harvestman

It was actually rather easy for one particular guy.


True. Never gets old.




dsankt 


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Re: Interested in the Paris Catacombes
< Reply # 5 on 1/19/2015 2:46 PM >
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Posted by phrenzee


True. Never gets old.


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Posted by hypnopunk
a sacred place for the parisien cataphils



u wot





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ittlebigcity 


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Re: Interested in the Paris Catacombes
< Reply # 6 on 1/28/2015 3:58 AM >
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this is an interesting subject.




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Agamen 


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Re: Interested in the Paris Catacombes
< Reply # 7 on 3/21/2015 8:12 PM >
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Hi everyone,
As a Cataphilen myself, I can try to answer your question

Posted by Aran
According to various rumors and sources, there is a lot more than bones down there. For example, the Catacombs are incredibly old. I know they were created when early Paris builders dug out the ground underneath the city for stone- are there still tools and such down there, untouched for centuries?

The first underground extracting areas exist since the XIIth century, but most of those ancients parts are filled and unaccessible now.
I've seen some old tools in an area that was exploited in the XVII-XVIIIth century, but they were in a pretty bad shape.

Posted by Aran
I've also heard that the Catacombs connect almost every underground structure in Paris, from the metro and sewer systems to the crypts and wine cellars of old mansions, to some hospitals and military bunkers.

The Catacombs exist as an independant network and there are some connections to other networks, like technical galeries (those connections are often used as POE). But in most of the areas, the Catacombs are to far below to be conected to anything.
In some places, some connections were made with caves. One of them is even still open, but the door between the cave and the bulding has been condemned. So it's basically just a room inside the Catacombs now.

Posted by Aran
Lastly, I've heard that they have been and still are used for more secretive stuff, from underground shanty towns to massive raves to even WWII era French Resistance operations.

There's no shanty town inside the catacombs (in fact, it would be almost impossible to actually live down there. Too much humidity, too less light... In a long term stay, that would cause health problems). But there always are some parties and raves organised, the place is perfect for that (no neighbor will ever call you to ask to shut the music down^^)

The bunker that you talk about is called the FFI bunker (FFI stands for Forces Francaises de l'Intérieur = Interior French Forces). There are many different bunkers inside the Catacombs, but this one is the most wanted, because it's closed and separated from the network.
A few years ago, one team managed to open it again, by drilling a hole from a technical galerie near it, and once inside, they organised a big party to celebrate the Liberation of Paris

Posted by phrenzee
True. Never gets old.

Well... You have here an example of why we really want to stay a "hard-to-penetrate and hostile-to-outsiders community". The less guys like that we have downstairs, the better we feel



[last edit 3/21/2015 8:13 PM by Agamen - edited 1 times]

Aran 


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Huh. I guess covid made me a trendsetter.

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Re: Interested in the Paris Catacombes
< Reply # 8 on 3/25/2015 1:34 AM >
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Thanks Agamen, that's pretty cool. I'd love to visit them someday if I ever go to Europe.

And those parties sound awesome. Just curious, do you by chance speak from experience on said raves?



[last edit 3/25/2015 1:35 AM by Aran - edited 1 times]

"Sorry, I didn't know I'm not supposed to be here," he said, knowing full well he wasn't supposed to be there.

FilthCity 


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Re: Interested in the Paris Catacombes
< Reply # 9 on 3/26/2015 1:36 AM >
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What a pretentious post. Me and my group were able to find an entrance and "penetrate" aka (crawl through a hole) without any assistance from locals. We did not venture far in fear of getting lost, but when we exited we found a local willing to give us a tour, which we gratefully accepted. Point is, everyone I explored with in Paris and met in the catacombs were polite and more than willing to show some Americans around.

Maybe the self proclaimed cataphiles are snooty, in the same way self proclaimed ubexers are.

There is way more than bones down there, rogue galleries, a library, carvings and murals that probably took weeks of work, and rooms with chandeliers and candles everywhere, party spots. It's like an entire differenty city almost.

Point is. There's a plethora of archived posts on this site regarding information on the catacombs and photos.




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p2501 


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Re: Interested in the Paris Catacombes
< Reply # 10 on 3/26/2015 8:38 AM >
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Posted by FilthCity
What a pretentious post. Me and my group were able to find an entrance and "penetrate" aka (crawl through a hole) without any assistance from locals. We did not venture far in fear of getting lost, but when we exited we found a local willing to give us a tour, which we gratefully accepted. Point is, everyone I explored with in Paris and met in the catacombs were polite and more than willing to show some Americans around.


You didn't happen to be in last weekend maybe?




sirpsychosexy 


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Re: Interested in the Paris Catacombes
< Reply # 11 on 3/26/2015 10:43 AM >
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Posted by FilthCity
What a pretentious post.

More like protective I think. This man probably has done more research and put more heart into it than you as a simple tourist will ever understand. That's the whole problem. Just like many people don't give a shit about abandoned buildings because, you know, they're going to be demolished anyway. Does it make you pretentious when you do give a shit about them? Doesn't give you the right to be a jerk either but I can understand that the real cataphiles aren't happy with masses of tourists.

That said, I think the catacombs are a bit of a lost cause because every inch seems to be tagged already.



[last edit 3/26/2015 10:44 AM by sirpsychosexy - edited 1 times]

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Agamen 


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Re: Interested in the Paris Catacombes
< Reply # 12 on 3/26/2015 3:52 PM >
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Posted by Aran
Thanks Agamen, that's pretty cool. I'd love to visit them someday if I ever go to Europe.

And those parties sound awesome. Just curious, do you by chance speak from experience on said raves?

I've been to some of those parties, when I had the chance to hear about it.
Every year there's "Katalloween" in October, we made a small party for Christmas and one month ago there was a huge one for the birthday of 5 people. It was amazing
Posted by FilthCity
What a pretentious post. Me and my group were able to find an entrance and "penetrate" aka (crawl through a hole) without any assistance from locals. We did not venture far in fear of getting lost, but when we exited we found a local willing to give us a tour, which we gratefully accepted. Point is, everyone I explored with in Paris and met in the catacombs were polite and more than willing to show some Americans around.

Maybe the self proclaimed cataphiles are snooty, in the same way self proclaimed ubexers are.

There is way more than bones down there, rogue galleries, a library, carvings and murals that probably took weeks of work, and rooms with chandeliers and candles everywhere, party spots. It's like an entire differenty city almost.

Point is. There's a plethora of archived posts on this site regarding information on the catacombs and photos.

Of course it's possible to find the entrance by yourself. You just have to google "entrée+catacombes+paris" and you will eventually find some. Or just by seeing someone entering or exiting. The entrance are in the middle of the street, even in the middle of the night it's very difficult not to be seen by anyone.

And yes, my post was pretentious. In fact, that's what most people tell about cataphiles, that we're just a bunch of jerk, jealous of "our" galleries, that we should be more open to outsiders etc. That was exactly what I was telling before I started exploring the place, and now, I'm one of those pretentious jerk.

Because in just one year of exploring, I've seen some magnificent places destroyed (the library that you talk about has been burnt 3 or 4 times since October), some places become a dump because of people leaving trash, and some POEs or even galleries injected and eternally destroyed, because of people entering without any knowledge about the place, making noise, bothering the neighbourhood and eventually causing the area to be closed.

So, even if at the beginning I was willing to bring anyone downstairs, so that they could discover this amazing place too, now I'm a lot more cautious in choosing who I bring with me.

One month ago, I met 3 english people, who were spending a whole week of vacation in the catacombs, to explore the place. There were really respectful, didn't leave any trash, they had learned and read a lot about the place before going down, they had all of the equipment they needed and it was a real pleasure to spend an evening with them and to show them some of my favorites spots.

I'm not against bringing tourists, as long as I'm sure that they understand how important is this place to us and how fragile it is. And this is clearly not the case of everybody.

So yes, I'm intentionally pretentious, because I'm protective, because the place really needs it.

Posted by sirpsychosexy

More like protective I think. This man probably has done more research and put more heart into it than you as a simple tourist will ever understand. That's the whole problem. Just like many people don't give a shit about abandoned buildings because, you know, they're going to be demolished anyway. Does it make you pretentious when you do give a shit about them? Doesn't give you the right to be a jerk either but I can understand that the real cataphiles aren't happy with masses of tourists.

That said, I think the catacombs are a bit of a lost cause because every inch seems to be tagged already.


Yep, that's the idea

And don't worry, there are still a lot of places without any tag. And when there are too much, you can just erase them.




romainpp 


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Re: Interested in the Paris Catacombes
< Reply # 13 on 3/26/2015 5:51 PM >
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Posted by FilthCity
What a pretentious post. Me and my group were able to find an entrance and "penetrate" aka (crawl through a hole) without any assistance from locals. We did not venture far in fear of getting lost, but when we exited we found a local willing to give us a tour, which we gratefully accepted. Point is, everyone I explored with in Paris and met in the catacombs were polite and more than willing to show some Americans around.

Maybe the self proclaimed cataphiles are snooty, in the same way self proclaimed ubexers are.

There is way more than bones down there, rogue galleries, a library, carvings and murals that probably took weeks of work, and rooms with chandeliers and candles everywhere, party spots. It's like an entire differenty city almost.

Point is. There's a plethora of archived posts on this site regarding information on the catacombs and photos.


There are some pretentious cataphiles out there, Agamen is not one of them. A few years ago, one guy started talking to me about the catacombs before I even knew about them, and when I told him that it sounded awesome and I totally wanted to go there, his reply was "haha, you need to know the right people". That was pretentious. There is a huge difference between saying "it takes some effort to find the catacombs" and "you need to be part of my super-secret inner circle of cataphiles to get in, do you know the secret handshake?".

I'm so sad I missed the katalloween. I didn't attend a lot of parties yet, I was there at one of them (40-ish people) in early January, and I'm pretty sure Agamen was there too




Agamen 


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Re: Interested in the Paris Catacombes
< Reply # 14 on 3/28/2015 3:16 PM >
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Posted by romainpp
I'm so sad I missed the katalloween. I didn't attend a lot of parties yet, I was there at one of them (40-ish people) in early January, and I'm pretty sure Agamen was there too

That's possible, were was it exactly?

And if you (or anyone) is in Paris in two week, I'm throwing my own party before I leave to Seattle. It won't be a huge rave with a massive sound system, but we'll be a bunch of people with music, beers, food and candles, if you're interested in coming.




LuminousAphid 


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Re: Interested in the Paris Catacombes
< Reply # 15 on 3/28/2015 4:46 PM >
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Did anyone even read the /b/ thread posted by phrenzee?
Impossible for me to take this subject seriously now.
Thanks /b/!




"See you guys, you never listen to me. I said there was gonna be trouble but you didn't listen to me. You guys are crazy. You know, you guys are self destructive. There's a funny farm and it has your names written all over it. But I'm gettin' out of here. I'm... I smell ice cream!"
romainpp 


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Re: Interested in the Paris Catacombes
< Reply # 16 on 3/28/2015 4:47 PM >
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It was the katafondue at Electro, I talked to you when you were leaving but I think I didn't have time to introduce myself.

I'll also be in Paris in two weeks, depending on my schedule I'm sure I could join your party




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